Since that article ran, Kinder has bought another $12.9 million of stock on the open market, from Feb. 7 through 12, paying a per-share average of $18.07 for another 714,932 Kinder Morgan shares. He now owns 236.5 million shares of the energy-infrastructure firm in his personal account, and another 11.8 million shares through a limited partnership, according to a form he filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week.

Kinder Morgan and Richard Kinder both declined to comment on the transactions.

One observer called Kinder’s stock buying has been “very extreme,” but said it may not mean that the shares are about to take off. David Miller, co-founder and chief investment officer of Catalyst Capital Advisors and senior portfolio manager of the Catalyst Insider Buying fund, told Barron’s in an email that Kinder Morgan insiders don’t have a good track record in terms of timing.

“Unfortunately, Richard Kinder was doing significant buying back in 2015 when the stock price was more than double what it is today,” Miller wrote. Miller’s fund doesn’t own Kinder Morgan stock.

Yet Kinder Morgan stock has already more than rebounded from last year’s 15% slump. Shares have advanced since our article earlier this month, and they are now up more than 22% so far this year, more than twice the 10.7% rise in the
S&P 500.
Kinder Morgan Stock set a 52-week intraday high of $18.98 Friday.

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